Emily Zach

I came across this book, Almost Lost Arts - Traditional Crafts and the Artisans Keeping Them Alive by Emily Freidenrich by chance when looking through my library's catalogue for something completely different. Don't you love it when a book finds you, instead of the other way around?

Almost Lost Arts showcases 20 traditional arts, crafts and vocations through the work of individual artisans passionate about their work and dedicated to keeping these skills and practices alive.

Highlights for me included the globemakers, bookmender, antiquarian horologist, wood type printers, sign painters, woodcut printers, mapmaker and hatmakers. There was also a cassette tape manufacturer, the last of its kind in the world which was interesting.

Very few of the profiles gave the reader an indication of the skill or training required, which was a real shame. On the chapter about woodcut prints, Meguri Nakayama tells us:

"Carvers and printers train for five to seven years to reach the minimum level of skill required of artisans, and it takes more years of 'concentration, patience, and strong passion," says Nakayama, "before they are considered masters." Page 180

This is clearly impressive, and I would have appreciated more examples of the time and effort taken to attain the level of knowledge, skill and experience these artisans have achieved in each of their very specialised careers.

Stuff like this. According to Simon Vernon, World's End Mapmaking Company in the UK:

"Less than point one of one percent of people are still making maps the way I do," Vernon estimates." Page 187

Impressively, Vernon is one of only a few people in the world creating maps using the same skills cartographers used three hundred years ago.

Many of the artisans featured don't have apprentices or anybody to pass their skills on to which makes you worry they could die out if future generations don't embrace them. Many of the artisans seemed keen and sometimes desperate to pass on their lifetime of knowledge and experience to keep their chosen art form alive. This book is an ode to the past and has successfully captured skills that could disappear in the future if younger generations don't see their charm or value.

However, if the book was expressly written and published to entice the reader to pursue any of the vocations presented in the profiles, then I don't believe it succeeds. The choice to include 20 profiles and go into a little detail was better than choosing 10 profiles in greater detail, but still, there was much missing. I would have been happy to have seen smaller or fewer photographs if it resulted in more information being included. Some of the photographs were too stylistic or artistic and weren't able to offer much sense of the tactile processes involved.

Almost Lost Arts - Traditional Crafts and the Artisans Keeping Them Alive by Emily Freidenrich is an interesting read and could serve as a jumping off point for some readers, however I'm glad I borrowed my copy from the library.… (mehr)

Peter Rabbit was the first book I read as a child, and I have always had a special place in my heart for the Beatrix Potter books. So when I saw this at the museum gift shop, I just had to have it. With her paintings reproduced in color on heavy stock, the book details her inspiration for the stories she wrote, including her carefully rendered authentic backgrounds - landscapes, room interiors, furniture, etc. Often the photos are printed next to her paintings to show her interpretation.

Even though it was very similar to a biography, the over-sized 240-page book ends suddenly in 1911 although she lived on until 1943. Skimming through Wikipedia I see that she continued to write as she grew older, so it would have been nice for a conclusion ending when she died, or at least a summary of the rest of her life.

A great complement to this book is the 2006 movie "Miss Potter" starring Renee Zellweger.… (mehr)

I have been delighted by many of the art books that Chronicle has published, and The Art of Beatrix Potter is no exception. The pages are heavy and only slightly glossy with rich and detailed full-color printing, making for a wonderful experience simply flipping through the pictures. The cover is also full-color with photographs and examples of the artist's work. It's honestly just a really lovely book.

What really makes me cherish it and very seriously considering buying copies for friends and family (I've already convinced a few to buy it on their own!) is the care given to the organization of the artwork and the accompanying text by Emily Zach.

Having worked in an art museum with access to quite a lot of exhibition catalogues and other art books, I find the different ways curators choose to organize the artwork on the page to be somewhat interesting or revealing. Viewing the art strictly chronologically, one artwork per page, is a very different experience than a book arranged by color, theme, or medium, or one with artwork in many different configurations. The different styles also invite the reader to focus on different aspects of the art, of course.

Zach has grouped Potter's work generally by the setting based on five major regions of England-Scotland-Wales where she spent most of her life. Within each grouping the artwork is mostly chronological, but not strictly so. The introduction explains that Potter lived in certain places at certain times of her life, occasionally returning to (say) Scotland or London for long periods, so the groupings work together to provide a biography through art, with some overlap as Potter moves around the island.

Potter is well-known for her children's book illustrations and somewhat less well-known for her mycological and other nature studies. As a fairly comprehensive look at her work, The Art of Beatrix Potter includes a variety of selections representing each of the different things she made but of course it simply can't reproduce every extant sketch or painting, even in the generous 300 pages. There is no running text through the book, instead there are captions for each image that show great care for the inclusions and explain why this image or that is worthwhile. As an example, there are at least two watercolors Potter created as a teenager that are included because they show the kind of places she lived and also demonstrate how her style evolved from heavy, deep tones to the famous airy washes. These paintings contrast with much later studies of buildings, gardens, or other landscapes that she made for the bunny books.

I read this book months ago and poured over the images with my friends, but couldn't write a review at the time because I didn't know how to succinctly describe how great it is - as a book and as an art collection. The quality is top-notch and it now lives with my other prized art books. It helps that I have some nostalgia for the bunny books from my childhood, but The Art of Beatrix Potter is worthwhile in its own right.… (mehr)